Columbus rated 1st in Ohio, 37th in U.S. in jobs index

Sunday

Dec 8, 2013 at 12:01 AMDec 8, 2013 at 2:19 PM

Columbus is the top-performing city in Ohio for job creation and retention, according to a new study that finds the metropolitan areas with ties to energy or technology are doing the best in the country.

Mark Williams, The Columbus Dispatch

Columbus is the top-performing city in Ohio for job creation and retention, according to a new study that finds the metropolitan areas with ties to energy or technology are doing the best in the country.

Columbus is 37th among 200 metro areas that are part of the annual Milken Institute Best-Performing Cities index. That’s up 16 spots from 2012.

The report is meant to help businesses, development agencies, government officials and others evaluate the performance of the metro areas where they work and do business compared with the rest of the country.

It is focused on job creation, retention and quality, and does not use other quality-of-life metrics found in similar reports, such as commute times or housing costs.

Key components of the index include job and wage growth since 2007. Also important are the number of high-tech industries in a region and how much of a role they play in the local economy.

Columbus did well in categories that rate job growth since 2007 and in wage growth in 2010-2011. The categories tied to high-tech jobs and companies were weaker.

No other Ohio city was in the top 100. Canton was 112th and Cincinnati 113th.

Toledo was one of the biggest movers in this year’s report, jumping 49 spots to 131. The report credited Toledo’s gain to an improving auto market.

Akron was 141st, followed by Cleveland at 147 and Dayton at 172.

That Columbus outperformed the other metro areas in the state is not unusual. Other reports have shown similar results, and the metro area has had the lowest unemployment rate in the state.

A new analysis from Chmura Economics & Analytics in Cleveland said the Columbus economy has mostly decoupled from the rest of the state.

“Without question, 2013 did not unfold as expected in Ohio,” the report said. “The steady job growth in 2012, led by the manufacturing sector which distinguished Ohio’s labor market from the national norm, all but disappeared in 2013. But while the Ohio economy underperformed, the Columbus economy stood out both within the state and within the nation.”

In the 12 months through August, Columbus had stronger job and wage growth than the state’s other metro areas, the report said. The region, unlike the other metro areas, has had steady population gains, too.

Columbus has recovered all the jobs it lost during the recession and has continued to add jobs, while Ohio’s other metro areas have muddled along, said Dan Meges, a Chmura economist.

“Columbus is not only creating jobs, but creating good jobs, comparatively speaking,” he said.

In the past three years, jobs that pay $34,000 to $53,000 a year have grown at a faster rate in the Columbus area than have high-paying or low-paying jobs, the report said.

U.S. cities with strong ties to technology or energy ranked among the top in the country.

The top five cities in the report — Austin, Texas; Provo, Utah; San Francisco; San Jose, Calif.; and Salt Lake City — have thriving tech sectors, the report noted. Other cities in the top tier are benefiting from the oil boom, including Houston, San Antonio and Corpus Christi in Texas and Bakersfield in California.

Fargo and Bismarck in North Dakota made the top five in the small-city index because of big energy gains in that state.